Sharpen thy Pencil
The excitement never ends. I’m sure my quest to complete the 2011 birthday card frenzy has had readers sitting on the edge of their seats. I know that I have personally been giddy with excitement over my quest for simplicity in my life. Giddy isn’t a very simple word, so maybe it doesn’t paint the right picture. I should say I have been trudging towards enlightenment, as I shed unwanted, complex burdens of everyday life from my overstocked personal shelf. Better imagery right?
But wait – as Henry guides me, I felt is was necessary to explore who Mr. Thoreau really was. I need a context or background for this larger than life Transcendentalist. (I (re)learned that word in my search!)
Mr. Henry David Thoreau worked in a pencil factory. Yup. A family owned pencil factory. Sigh. Could it be any simpler? A pencil is the basic tool which we use to write. A simple tool. And yet, a pencil is one of my least favorite things to use when writing by hand. It scratches on the paper. The mere sound of the pencil sends shivers up my spine. And then, if you get a bad eraser … I have to stop. I cannot continue thinking about pencils.
But, it did dawn on me – doesn’t it make sense that Henry would be a writer? He personally crafted the tool that we all learn basic script with during school. Throughout his life he would leave the factory, only to return. So, I’m very much jumping to conclusions from my brief reading on The Thoreau Society site, BUT it all starts and ends with the pencil. And to me, symbolically, the pencil represents writing. Writing. I’m writing about leading a simpler life. It’s all connected. I will write, write, and write some more. And, in theory, it will all become simple(r).
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
I started updating my Contacts in my laptop’s address book, as directed.
